Shades of Passion. Virna DePaul

farther south. The word Sextuplets blazed up at him.

      Was that—?

      She snatched up the DVD case and shoved it back into her purse, then threw in everything else before standing. He straightened far more slowly.

      He swiped a hand across his face but obviously didn’t do a good enough job of hiding his smile.

      “Not a word,” she said and started to walk away.

      Her voice was like another punch in the gut. It was a bit gravelly. A rocker chick’s voice inside a woman who looked like an angel. He fell in step beside her.

      She didn’t look at him. When they reached the front entrance and passed through the automatic sliding doors, she paused in front of the Information counter. He followed suit.

      Her gaze met his and her chin tilted up. “A patient gave it to me. She’s an older woman and she has a collection and I didn’t want to hurt her feelings—”

      He pressed his lips together and managed to keep a serious expression on his face. He nodded. “Right. She collects porn and thought for some reason you might be interested. I wonder what made her draw that conclusion?”

      She narrowed her eyes, trying to look threatening but only managing to look adorable. The tendrils of attraction he’d been feeling exploded into something hot and wild. It took him by surprise, so much so that she’d already moved toward the lobby elevators before he noticed. He followed.

      She frowned at seeing him standing next to her again.

      “What?” he said. “We’re in a public hospital and I have a doctor’s appointment.”

      It had been a while since he’d met a woman who blushed so easily.

      “Of course,” she said.

      “Are you one?”

      “Am I one what?”

      “A doctor?”

      “Yes.”

      “Then you shouldn’t be so embarrassed about getting caught with a skin flick in your bag. The human body and what it needs to survive is nothing new to you, right?”

      She smiled tightly. “Right. Excuse me...”

      She turned and walked away.

      He cursed himself for driving her off. “Weren’t you going to take the elevator?” he called.

      “Yes, I was.”

      He watched her go with more than a little regret, but he was smiling when he got into the elevator. Too bad he couldn’t have run into the doctor at McGill’s. He’d have spotted her and he’d have done his best to bed her. Because despite his musings in the parking lot, he was definitely interested in having sex again.

      And suddenly she was the only one he was interested in having it with.

      * * *

      NINA ACTUALLY FANNED herself as she took the stairs up to the sixth floor. Whew.

      That was one handsome man. Not pretty-boy handsome, either.

      Manly man handsome.

      Manly man sexy.

      And given the way he’d reacted to seeing the porn she’d had in her purse, he had a sense of humor, too, which merely made him more attractive.

      She cringed at the memory of him seeing that DVD case, but at least it had distracted him from Rachel’s rag doll. She’d noticed the brief surprise on his face when he’d glimpsed it and she’d once again wondered whether her inability to get rid of the doll represented a bigger problem than she’d thought. She didn’t need an object to remember her sister, after all. Especially one that her sister had been cradling on the night she’d...

      Swallowing hard, Nina shook her head. No. She wasn’t going to deal with that particular memory right now. Especially not today. It was the third anniversary of Beth Davenport’s death and Nina had no illusions about what was in store for her today. Last year, Beth’s father, Lester Davenport, had proven how resourceful he was, once again tracking down her place of work and mailing her one of those hideous cards of his. Before the day was over, she’d probably get another one. Until then, she would damn well think about something else.

      Someone else.

      With determination, she thought about the man from the parking lot again.

      He wasn’t quick to smile, but when he did, the expression softened his intimidating, almost grim countenance into something mischievously boyish. It made her think of playing tickle-tag along the ocean shore or dancing the salsa at a hip city club or resting her head in his lap while she read a book in Golden Gate Park. In other words, it made her think of all the things she’d like to do with a partner, yet her life had become her work and she rarely dated, and she hadn’t yet met a man she could picture herself doing all those things with. At least not before him...

      Given he was a complete stranger, that was either pathetic or a sign that she was ready to explore dating again. It was all a matter of interpretation.

      The question was which interpretation she was going to choose.

      Having reached the sixth floor, Nina pulled open the stairwell door and headed toward her office. And just like always, once she immersed herself in work, thoughts about what might be possible in any other aspect of her life faded away.

      * * *

      HIS LONG LIMBS SPRAWLED out in front of him, Simon tried to put the pretty doctor out of his mind and waited for his appointment with the shrink to start. As more and more time went by, he found himself thinking about her and wondering if he should track her down. Then what?

      Despite that porn DVD in her purse, she didn’t look like a woman into casual sex, which meant she probably had gotten it from one of her patients.

      When he caught himself smiling, he shook his head. He had to focus here, not think about some intriguing woman and the equally intriguing contents of her purse.

      Impatiently, he glanced at his watch. It was already twenty past the hour. Rising, he strode to the receptionist’s window. She was another pretty blonde and she was talking to...

      His eyebrows lifted in surprise.

      The pretty doctor.

      Simon waited as the women continued their chat, then cleared his throat.

      They looked up. The blonde doctor’s green eyes widened in recognition.

      Simon nodded. “Hello again.” Their gazes remained locked before he managed to turn his attention to the receptionist. “Do you know how much longer Dr. Shepard is going to be?” Simon asked.

      “It shouldn’t be too much longer.”

      “Right.”

      He felt the gaze of the other woman on him and looked back at her. She smiled.

      She had an incredible smile.

      Attraction once again morphed into something else. Desire. Need.

      He made up his mind to ask her out. Maybe she wasn’t into casual sex, but he could always get lucky, right?

      Then he noticed the badge now hanging around her neck.

      Nina Whitaker, MD, PhD. Psychiatry, Psychology.

      A psychiatrist.

      Just like Lana. Only Nina Whitaker was a twofer. An MD and a PhD.

      She’d truly made it her life’s work to help the mentally ill.

      Air left his lungs and the damned pain wormed its way upward again. Silencing a swearword, he turned away without returning her smile.

      * * *

      AS THE TALL, BROODING man stalked away from the receptionist’s window, Nina reached past Sandy to close the sliding Plexiglas window.